Treasurer: no report submitted
Motion passed: change MARCO financial account from Wells Fargo to Bank of America since it is more easily available anywhere. The secretary and new president as well as Treasurer will be signatories in the account (so if one person passes away or is unavailable, there would not be discontinuity).
Motion for nomination and approval of Treasurer: N8CL will be the new Treasurer.

Motion for nomination and approval of Secretary. WB2MXJ said OK to being Secretary again, but with carve out of someone else handling booths and hotels at Orlando/Dayton. This was agreed to and approved. WB2MXJ will remain as Secretary

Motion to have a Meeting Committee under the President to set up booth/hotels. President will appoint the members. WB1FFI and N3IM will be initial committee members. Approved.

Medishare: no report submitted. W6OJB continues as Medishare director

Newsletter report from KD4GUA. All is going well. KX4Z Gorden Gibby is a new member and author who agreed to write column for newsletter. WD9GET Keith Brandt agreed to write an article for the newsletter. KD4GUA discussed how he first got involved in the newsletter. When previous newsletter editor Ed Briner (sp? Call sign?) died KD4GUA volunteered to be the newsletter editor as he always had a journalistic interest. He uses Publisher software for newsletter and will forward Publisher newsletter template file he uses to Secretary and President, so it is available if needed by others in the future. Plan for future is Warren is happy to continue the newsletter work as is, but eventually someone will need to replace him. Ideally, there could be an assistant newsletter editor now some someone could learn the process from KD4GUA but unclear who that person would be.

K6JW raised the issue of whether the newsletter should go electronic and save the work and expense of labels and hard copy publishing and mailing. KD4GUA reported that as of a few years ago, it is being published for no cost so it is just the expense of mailing, and he gets feedback that many appreciate the hardcopy mailed to them, as well as useful as recruitment materials at Dayton/Orlando, etc. The group agreed that going electronic can be parallel with continuing the hardcopy newsletters that are mailed for now.
MOTION: Work on setting up auto emails with a link to the current newsletter that go out to all members when the newsletter is posted on website. KT8E (Dave, Internet coordinator) & WB2MXJ (Secretary) will be responsible to develop this. At a future MARCO meeting after the electronic copies are being sent regularly without any glitches, the group will discuss whether the hard copy version should fade away.

Grand Rounds report from KD4GUA: He reported that since he is 94, he would recommend another person be added to Grand Rounds net control to run it every other week. KD4GUA believes this to prepare for when Warren cannot do it. All agreed but person not identified. Everyone agreed this would be the best thing to do. However, no specific person was identified. Once KD4GUA for the President can identify the person(s) this can proceed.

AA4FL discussed the CW net before Grand Rounds and whether it should expand to an ECHOnet and feed into Grand Rounds. Others thought the CW net was a separate thing from an ECHOnet and should operate separately, whether before or after the Grand Rounds. It was agreed that the AA4FL can explore this, but no other decisions were made about it at this time.

Discussion about the president elect nomination. WB2MXJ recommended the best choice would be a past president that has been around for a long time and knows the MARCO culture well. Rationale for this is that MARCO may be in a challenging transition time given the Dayton vs Orlando situation, and the realization that the newsletter and Grand Rounds work of KD4GUA may need to be shared and eventually done by others. Also discussed by the group was the need to bring in younger MARCO members. Motion for nomination of president elect and approval of the person: KM2L, approved.

Directors reviewed. KM2L read the bylaws of the director’s job description form bylaws, and that from the Bylaws the Directors at Large are meant to be the last 5 past presidents. Formal voting only for those positions where the person is changing. It was also discussed that the intention is for the Officers and Directors to be the governance body for MARCO, so if someone cannot come to most of the annual meetings, then their governance contribution is limited or nil, and replacements who can fully share in governance should be explored.
1 – TBD – This can be decided by an email vote among officers
2 – WB1FFI (lives in area 2) will be new director as KM2L is now the president elect. Approved.
3 – N3IM Keith – same
4 – AE4BX – same
5 – KD5BQK will be new director – approved (she will rotate off the director at large role)
6 – N6DMV – same
7 – KA7LOT – same
8 – W8CRK – same
9 – WA9HIR – same
0 – K0FS – same
Directors at large – last 5 past presidents are directors at large, K9QA will replace KD5BQK

Question raised: Will the q 2-year MARCO meeting at a big hamfest be Dayton or Orlando long term?
Answer: TBD. There is no final decision on this yet, though this year’s MNARCO meeting is in Orlando. Feedback on this topic should go to present and future presidents: AA4FL & KM2L.

Secretary report on membership:
After purging the access database of those that had not paid dues since 2014, we have:
N=187 members
A more detailed report will come after integrating the new online payment system with the access database.

Webmaster report from KT8E (Dave Liebermann, he asked Secretary to give his report)

Online database –

115 paid – these have to be updated in the access database, to coordinate with those who paid by check

66 – not yet responded to the email

36 – emails not available send them

It will greatly reduce workload when dues payments can be made online from the invoice instead of by paper checks. But both systems can be used for now:

1. Old system still OK: Mail check to Secretary, he updates the access database from which the newsletter labels are printed. Dues renewal date on the newsletter label inform members when next dues payment is due

2. New system: Receive a Dues Invoice from webmaster and pay online.

Issues with the PayPal invoice startup:

1. For this first year, some dues invoices went out via email when checks were already sent to secretary. We will coordinate the database to get it correct and integrate both online and check payments. This will be a diminishing issue as years go on.

2. To keep costs very low, standard PayPal plug-ins for WordPress were used by the Webmaster. This cost savings means we have to live within its limitations. It can be set up for a one-time request for dues, or a subscription every time period (e.g., 1 year, 10 years). To reduce future work, it was set up as a subscription. After paying dues many went back to cancel the subscription (sometimes before the payment processed, thus cancelling the dues payment). We ask that you not cancel it (at least not immediately unless you want to leave MARCO). Otherwise it will require much more effort every year to send out a one-time dues invoice. If you wish a different dues invoice (such as an associate $15/yr vs a regular $25/yr, or a 10-year instead of 1 year, contact KT8E.

Webpage member photos at http://marco-ltd.org/members/ – if you are not listed, please send photos to KT8E Dave Lieberman dlieberman@computer-methods.com

AA4FL asked if members might be interested in a Dx vacation – is there interest among MARCO members for a common Dx family vacation? To be explored – send feedback to AA4FL

AA4FL asked if members might be interested in Missions – is there interest among MARCO members of physically going on medical missions with a ham radio aspect. To be explored – send feedback to AA4FL

Scholarship update – we sent 2 organizations $1,000 each in the past for two 2-year funding of a MARCO scholarship for ham radio operators interested in a health profession:
1. Thru ARRL $500, ARRL decides who based on MARCO criteria
2. The foundation for amateur radio $500, they decide who based on MARCO criteria
Motion to renew the $1000 funding to each of the above organizations for these scholarships for an additional 2 years (total of $2,000) when it becomes due for renewal. Approved.